Your Life Matters and so does your funeral

Funerals make a social statement that says, ``Come support me.`` Whether they realise it or not, those who choose not to have a funeral are saying, ``Don't come support me.``

– Dr Alan Wolfelt.

Grief is the price we pay for love, and people need time to mourn the loss of a loved one. Sometimes, we feel that by denying a loss or shielding our families we can ease the hurt or stop the feeling of grief. Grief is hard, unbearable at times, but certainly doesn’t go away if we try to deny it happens.

All our significant life events are shared with others. Birthdays and weddings provide an opportunity to come together and share. A funeral should be the same, allowing those who knew us to show that our life mattered to them, to remember and to celebrate a life lived.

Funerals offer finality and understanding that loved ones have died and beginning a journey of our life without them in it.

A funeral is not a fuss; it’s saying goodbye with dignity and purpose, a symbolism of our love and a meaningful life event.

Sharing stories and talking about life and death can ease the burden on our family, why don’t we do it more often?

Complete the “Your Story” booklet together or simply complete the details yourself. In a way, it can become your memoir, an insight of who you are and what shaped your life. It will certainly be a treasured family memento and will make sure those that really matter to you will never say “I wish I knew more” or “if only I had the chance to ask now”.

‘Your Goodbye’ is about your farewell to family and friends. It’s about the final pages of Your Story, but like any good book it takes input and help from others. Your Goodbye should be a collaboration between you and those you love most, so that when the ink dries on your last page; you can all close the book with a sense of ease, understanding, pride and unwavering love.

Join the conversation

Your Stories

Your Resources

It’s your goodbye.

Your Questions

Whether there is one person or one hundred who might attend, it’s still important to acknowledge your life. Funerals are not about how many who attend but what it means to say goodbye for those who attend.

It’s a caring gesture to not want your family to be hurting but research shows very clearly that we cannot prevent grief from occurring just because we don’t want to be upset. Grief, is normal, natural and to be expected – a funeral actually helps people to express their feelings so they don’t bottle them up and become unwell later.